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IBRD and IDA: Working for a World Free of Poverty.enResults-based financing for higher education reforms in Madhya Pradesh, Indiahttps://blogs.worldbank.org/education/results-based-financing-higher-education-reforms-madhya-pradesh-india
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<img alt="Students in Madyha Pradesh, India." height="400" src="https://blogs.worldbank.org/education/files/education/students-madyha-pradesh-india.jpg" title="Students in Madyha Pradesh, India." width="600" />
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Students in Madyha Pradesh, India.</figcaption>
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A couple of months ago, I visited Chandra Shekhar Azad College in Sehore, about an hour’s drive from Bhopal, the capital of the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. It was a short visit, but long enough to see that college students the world over have similar dreams and see higher education as a way to realize them.</p>
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Divya, an undergraduate student in her fourth semester, told me she was at this college because it was the only one in the district that offered a biotechnology major. Despite belonging to one of India’s historically disadvantaged scheduled castes, she was paying the full tuition. “<em>Lekin </em>value<em> zyada hain</em>,” she said, explaining that she saw potential in it, and would persevere.<br />
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Divya, however, is by no means a typical student in a Madhya Pradesh college. In fact, scheduled caste students are woefully under-represented; less than 7 percent of the relevant age group among those belonging to the scheduled castes make it to <a href="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTEDUCATION/0,,contentMDK:20298183~menuPK:617592~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:282386,00.html" rel="nofollow">higher education</a> – which is half the overall rate.<br />
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It is also unusual for Divya, as a girl, to be pursuing higher education; for every 100 boys, there are only 56 girls in the state’s colleges and universities. Increasing access to higher education for girls and scheduled castes (and scheduled tribes) is an urgent priority for the state, as is improving the quality of education.<br />
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How is Madhya Pradesh going to deliver better results in higher education? The state has over 1,300 colleges and universities, which serve 1.6 million students. That’s a lot of students—ten percent of India’s entire population of students in higher education are enrolled in Madhya Pradesh.<br />
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The state’s name Madhya Pradesh quite literally means Central Province, and that isn’t just geographically speaking. With the fourth-lowest per capita GDP of all Indian states ($728), it’s pretty clear that what happens in vast and populous state is central to India’s development.<br />
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The state has chosen a results-based approach to design an education project. Financing is provided based on achieving a set of pre-agreed results—depending on how effectively colleges and universities use grants to improve access to scholarships, boost faculty skills, develop curricula, raise governance and accountability, and conduct monitoring and evaluation.<br />
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Another key activity will be setting up centers of excellence across the state in various disciplines, making the most efficient use of finite resources.&nbsp;<br />
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The World Bank is assisting Madhya Pradesh in the use of this new ‘<a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education/brief/results-based-financing-in-education" rel="nofollow">results-based financing’</a> approach. The concept has been used successfully with World Bank support in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and is in demand globally as governments are increasingly interested in focusing on health and education results.<br />
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In essence, the <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/04/24411760/india-madhya-pradesh-higher-education-quality-improvement-project-environmental-assessment-environment-management-framework" rel="nofollow">Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Quality Improvement Project</a> will help a lot more students from disadvantaged sections of society to get into college and stay the course, so to speak. Importantly, it will also help them get an education that is relevant and up-to-date, and that will prepare them for jobs when they graduate.<br />
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The benefits to Madhya Pradesh are expected to be high, and working with low-income states is central to the <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/india-cps" rel="nofollow">World Bank Group’s country partnership strategy in India</a>. As an approach, results-based financing could well become as central to development financing as Madhya Pradesh is central to India. But these are early days. This project is one to watch as it progresses towards its first year of results. There will indeed be a lot to learn from how it goes.<br />
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Meanwhile, Divya and Yogendra, another student who was happy to stop and chat, want to do their Masters in Biotechnology. It is really heartening that the system is now trying to keep pace with their aspirations.<br />
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<em>For more information, please visit our</em>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.worldbank.org/education" rel="nofollow">website</a>&nbsp;<em>and follow</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/wbg_education" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><em>@wbg_education</em></a>&nbsp;<em>on Twitter.</em><br />
<em>Watch this</em>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/video/2015/05/27/results-based-financing-in-education" rel="nofollow">video</a>&nbsp;about results-based financing in education in India.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
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Thu, 09 Jul 2015 11:03:00 -0400Kavita WatsaBetter Disease Surveillance is part of the Great Lakes Peace Dividend https://blogs.worldbank.org/nasikiliza/better-disease-surveillance-part-great-lakes-peace-dividend
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Beside the great Lake Kivu, beneath the shadow of an enormous volcano, the Rwanda-DRC border divides the neighboring cities of Gisenyi and Goma. As the day begins, the predominant impression is one of movement, as people walk in either direction through the customs checkpoint, carrying giant bunches of green banana, stacks of nesting plastic chairs, anything that is tradable. They form an unbroken stream of humanity crossing to and fro, the tall border signboards towering overhead.</p>
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With trade and labor mobility across national borders comes the heightened risk of disease. We are in Gisenyi, on the Rwanda side of the border, to visit a project that is working to detect and arrest the spread of dangerous diseases like ebola, tuberculosis, and cholera. In the past, vulnerable border areas have lacked the capacity for the kind of rapid diagnosis that is needed to check epidemics. Later in the day, when we visit a village about 40 kilometers from Gisenyi, it is obvious that this is changing.<br />
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At the Busasamana health center, the small laboratory is one of several that are networked across five countries—Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania—participating in the <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/projects/P111556/east-africa-public-health-laboratory-networking-project?lang=en" rel="nofollow">East Africa Laboratory Networking project</a>. The project is a World Bank-supported effort to strengthen diagnostic laboratories, a vital but long-neglected pillar of the average public health system.<br />
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Here we meet Jean Claude Iyakaremye, an agricultural worker who fell gravely ill while working on a farm across the border in the DRC. He was brought to the health center, where his condition was identified as cholera and treated immediately. Quick community outreach in the surrounding villages ensured that a few more cases were identified and nobody died needlessly from the treatable disease.<br />
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Disease samples needing more sophisticated diagnosis—for example, suspected cases of tuberculosis—are sent in a cool flask to the District Hospital in Gisenyi, where a large modern laboratory is being built. Meanwhile, the existing laboratory is housed in a makeshift building, but has begun to follow the protocols required to be an “accredited” laboratory. Its diagnostic capacity has been greatly increased, with many samples no longer having to be sent to Kigali for analysis.<br />
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The laboratory technicians in Gisenyi are clearly proud of the progress they have made and are keen to show us how things have changed. In a part of the world with migrant labor and at risk of TB-HIV co-infection, the laboratory protocol being learned and practiced here, and the modern diagnostic equipment could indeed mean the difference between life and death to many.</p>
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An interesting feature of the five-country project is that each country specializes in a particular area and shares knowledge with the others. Rwanda’s specialization is in Internet and Communication Technology (ICT). The computer specialist at Gisenyi hospital shows us the upgraded technology that has come to the hospital as a result of the project. Rwanda is using this opportunity to upgrade ICT systems at the whole hospital, and not just in the laboratory.<br />
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Driving out of Gisenyi that evening along winding mountain roads, I thought of all the development that has been possible in the surrounding district of Rubavu as a result of peace. One might think of it as a peace dividend—the building of institutions, systems, infrastructure, and human capital that follows the ravages of conflict. Access to good services is an essential element of sustaining that peace.</p>
Sun, 23 Mar 2014 20:31:00 -0400Kavita WatsaA Safety Net for Stellahttps://blogs.worldbank.org/nasikiliza/safety-net-stella
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Bold Steps to Reduce Extreme Poverty in Tanzania </strong>
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<div class="field field-name-field-asset-video-file field-type-emvideo field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/AqAvTY-asPM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-asset-video-desc field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The government is supporting Tanzania's poorest families in an effort to reach those left behind by the country's largely urban growth.</div></div></div></div>
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Mtoto mzuri sana. Stella’s face lights up as I admire her baby, but she doesn’t reply. We are in the primary school compound in Chehembe, a village about 50 kilometers from Tanzania’s administrative capital, Dodoma. Stella is waiting to be registered in the country’s social safety net program, which is meant to cushion very poor households against sudden losses of income. And we are waiting to hear Stella’s story, to ask her how many children she has, and how she earns a living.</p>
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But Stella is shy, and I wonder if she will want to talk to us. When she does begin to speak, the words come tumbling out. A personal history, in no particular order, of names and ages, years and distances, trials and tribulations. It takes us a while to get it all straight, to sort through who is related to Stella, and who is not, and even so, I think we might have the family tally wrong. Then Stella takes us to her house, about half a kilometer away, so we can meet her other children.<br />
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Karibuni sana. Stella welcomes us formally outside a single-room house built of baked earth, with a grass roof. Before long, everybody in the village gathers around, happy to supply details and advice as Stella continues to talk to us. Three children under the age of five are introduced; they are all shy like their mother, and stay close to her. Stella supports these young ones and the baby on her hip entirely on her own. Her husband left home some months ago, she says. The older women of the village joke good-humoredly about this event and laugh as Stella pauses. She is embarrassed at first, and then she laughs out loud too.<br />
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I think to myself that it is remarkable how women the world over—whatever their culture, language, or income level—tend to show similar resilience in the face of trouble. Each of us has a story, and the roads we walk are seldom easy. The great difference, though, is the kind of support systems that we have in the face of adversity, from our families, communities, workplaces, and governments. Are we cast aside or assisted? Do we earn enough to put food on the table and send our children to school? What happens when there is no place to go?<br />
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Stella’s only support in the world is her elderly mother, who has given her this one-room house to live in and a plot of land that she is able to walk across in 20 steps. On it, Stella grows millet. When she harvested her last crop, she earned 60,000 shillings (about US$38) from the sale of grain. She has no other job, nor enough money to buy livestock or other assets. She must live on this money for several months, which places her below the food poverty line.<br />
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That is why Stella’s community has decided that she is an ideal beneficiary for the government-run cash transfer program that relies heavily on communities to nominate the poorest among them for assistance. Registering for this social safety net program will not make Stella a rich woman overnight, or anywhere close. Through the program, she will receive a small amount of money every month on condition that she sends her school-age children to school and gets regular check-ups at the nearest health center. Over time, it will allow her to save a little, and buy livestock. The modest but regular transfer of cash will give her a fighting chance to work her way out of extreme poverty, and secure her children’s future.<br />
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Conditional cash transfers are not a new way to try to address poverty. These programs have been long employed in Latin America. The Tanzania program is unique, though, in the degree to which it involves local communities in the identification of beneficiaries. I could certainly see that Stella’s community had done well to nominate her to receive the assistance. But there is also robust evidence that this program, which has targeted about 20,000 households so far in three Tanzanian districts (Bagamoyo, Chamwino, and Kibaha) is helping the poorest people save money, buy assets, and invest in health insurance, while also improving children’s health and education prospects.<br />
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Tanzania has now decided to scale up this program to cover as many as 900,000 households—that’s roughly 5.5 million people—over the next few years, with&nbsp; support from the World Bank (through IDA, its fund for the poorest), the UN, and other development partners. The government’s objective is to dramatically reduce extreme poverty.<br />
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This short film about the program tells you Stella’s story, and also features Beta and Rehema, two other women who have been receiving the cash for a while. Their stories of hope, resilience, and sheer enterprise, could now potentially be replicated on a much larger scale across the country.<br />
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<strong>Related</strong>: <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/tanzania/publication/tanzania-economic-update-can-tanzania-eradicate-poverty" target="_blank">Tanzania Economic Update</a></p>
Thu, 12 Dec 2013 15:00:00 -0500Kavita WatsaMosquito Nets in Kenya: Driving Africa’s Fastest Reduction in Infant Mortalityhttps://blogs.worldbank.org/nasikiliza/mosquito-nets-kenya-driving-africa-s-fastest-reduction-infant-mortality
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Growing up in India, mosquito nets were an essential part of life. I slept under them as a child in Bangalore, with their ropes tied to bedposts, doors, closets, window grills—anything that would offer support at the right height. It was like pitching a tent every night, and the occasional dramatic collapse would result in much helpless laughter. Later, going to college on the banks of the slow-flowing Koovam river in Madras (now Chennai), I tucked myself under a net in my dormitory at about 6 p.m. to avoid the twilight assault of mosquitos from the water. In fact, particularly after a bad attack of malaria when I was a child, a lot of my life was lived perforce under a mosquito net, until electric repellent gadgets reached the market and nets somewhat lost their popularity.<br />
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Recently, sitting in Halima Ibrahim’s house in Majengo, a neighborhood in the coastal city of Mombasa, and talking about the new mosquito nets her family had just received from the Kenyan government, I felt instantly at home in her tiny living room. It was packed from corner to corner with family and friends, all brimming with opinions about nets old and new. Everybody talked about malaria and what a problem the disease was in the community. The nets that had just been distributed to them free of cost would make a huge difference, they said, protecting them from being bitten by mosquitos, and saving them considerable expense. Many of the families on the street simply could not afford to buy durable and effective nets at the prices they commanded in the local market.</p>
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Through a small door across from where I was sitting was a familiar sight – a small bedroom with a large bed stretched from wall to wall, overhung with an enormous net. In the bed lay a very tiny baby in a red frock and cap, the only member of the family taking a siesta at five o’clock in the evening. Showing us her new baby and talking about the mosquito net she had just received, Halima’s daughter Asanat, a mother of three young children, said that during her first pregnancy, she had received a net at the public clinic. The new nets she received were much better than the old one she said, they were the right size, and of improved quality and durability.<br />
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In <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/kenya">Kenya</a>, where malaria is endemic in some parts of the country including Mombasa and the coastal districts, eight out of 10 households now own nets to help them beat a vicious disease that both takes away lives and reduces productivity. Mosquito nets that protect from malaria have been making a huge difference to the number of babies surviving through their infancy in the country. <a href="http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64165259&amp;theSitePK=469372&amp;piPK=64165421&amp;menuPK=64166093&amp;entityID=000158349_20120503152728">Research</a> published last year by the World Bank showed that about half the dramatic reduction in infant mortality in Kenya—a drop of 7.6 percent a year between recent Demographic and Health Surveys—could be attributed to the use of nets. Kenya’s progress in saving babies under the age of one is the fastest among 20 countries with available data in <a href="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/0,,menuPK:258649~pagePK:158889~piPK:146815~theSitePK:258644,00.html">Sub-Saharan Africa</a>.<br />
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The theme of this year’s World Malaria Day was “<a href="http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/worldmalariaday/">Invest in the Future: Defeat Malaria</a>”. As we recognize this, Kenya’s achievement is really worth celebrating.<br />
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<strong>Related:</strong><br />
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<a href="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:23192224~menuPK:34480~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html">Issue brief: Malaria in Africa</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuJMnLRR-1g">Video: More fifth birthdays in Africa</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxtLPYmrZI8">Video: Towards a Healthy, Wealthy Africa</a><br />
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<a href="http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64165259&amp;theSitePK=469372&amp;piPK=64165421&amp;menuPK=64166093&amp;entityID=000158349_20120503152728">Research: What has driven the decline in infant mortality in Kenya?</a><br />
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<a href="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/0,,contentMDK:20266824~menuPK:538117~pagePK:146736~piPK:226340~theSitePK:258644,00.html">Website: World Bank – Human Development in Africa</a><br />
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Wed, 01 May 2013 14:00:00 -0400Kavita WatsaGetting healthcare to work better in Samburu Countyhttps://blogs.worldbank.org/nasikiliza/getting-healthcare-to-work-better-in-samburu-county
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<P>As our sturdy Land Cruiser inched its way down a precipitous dirt track, trying to descend from a high ridge into the Rift Valley, I wondered what might happen if we had an accident here in the heart of Kenya’s remote Samburu County. Mobile signals had faded soon after we left the town of Maralal several hours before. We could have tried to walk back, but would have been very unlikely to make it before nightfall. Luckily, after a few mishaps and some serious jolting, we arrived at our destination in the valley—lonely Suyan manyata, whose distant circular outline we had seen from the ridge.</P>
<P>Talking to some of the women in the manyata, I realized that the ground that we had covered to get to them was nothing. We had done it in good health in a vehicle built for difficult terrain. As they told us what life was like in their village, my heart quailed at the thought of enduring a bumpy ride in a run-down van if one were pregnant or in labor with complications—if at all transport could be obtained. Just a few days ago, a child had died here of malaria, the women said. How did they usually get help, I asked. “We send our fastest runner 18 kilometers to the nearest dispensary,” said Ma Toraeli, a grandmother in the village. “From there someone comes to help us”. Health workers also visited the village from time to time, she said, to immunize babies and perform other routine checks.</P>
<P>Immunization seemed high on people’s minds in Samburu. Later that day, we visited Barsaloi, a larger village with its own government dispensary and another run by Catholic nuns. The two stood side by side, with a well-worn path between them. There I met another grandmother, Agnes, who had brought an infant girl, Salini, to be immunized, although her record showed that she was early and didn’t need this service yet. But while Stephen, the clinical officer at the government dispensary, was examining the baby and we were on the subject of immunization, the district head nurse showed us how vaccines were stored at the required temperature in the two-room government dispensary without power supply.<!--break--></P>
<P>We were in Barsaloi to ask whether recent changes in the way these dispensaries received government funds were making any difference to the services they provided. Stephen said that money received through “performance-based financing” (PBF)—where health facilities are paid directly if they achieve pre-agreed, verified results—was very effective at improving some key services, such as getting more babies immunized.</P>
<P>But long-running problems with transport, communication, and cultural barriers still persisted and prevented people from seeking other services. Salini’s mother&nbsp; died due to complications after her birth,&nbsp;showing the stark realities involved in delivering essential health services in places like Samburu. For the young mother, distance had meant tragic death, while for Salini, it could be more easily overcome to ensure health and survival.</P>
<P>As we watched Stephen at work, we were interrupted by Sister Elisa, who had walked across with a patient she wanted Stephen to see. What both of them said many times was that they needed more support—whether in terms of more skilled staff, or assistance from the government to train local people, or medicines arriving on time. PBF money was a good start as a reward for results. But they hoped that this was the beginning of more support.</P>
<P>Anecdotal feedback aside, early data shows that PBF, which has been used effectively in <A href="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/RWANDAEXTN/0,,menuPK:368660~pagePK:141159~piPK:141110~theSitePK:368651,00.html">Rwanda</A> and <A href="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/BURUNDIEXTN/0,,menuPK:343757~pagePK:141159~piPK:141110~theSitePK:343751,00.html">Burundi</A>, is starting to make a difference in Samburu. Verification data—collected by NGOs like World Vision and AMREF—show that the number of children being fully immunized before age one went up by 28% between Oct-Dec 2011 and Jan-Mar 2012. In the same period, 30% more women received family planning services, 20% more pregnant women received at least four ante-natal check-ups, and 15% more deliveries were conducted by skilled attendants in health facilities. In Samburu, PBF is being tested in a range of settings, from tiny village dispensaries like the ones in Barsaloi to larger health centers, run by both public and non-governmental providers. This new way of financing builds on a direct financing mechanism set up by the Kenyan Government to get money straight to health facilities in a timely and transparent way through its Health Sector Services Fund. The Samburu experience provides a rich learning ground, and lessons from it will inform a potential scale-up of the PBF approach across <A href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/kenya">Kenya</A>, as the country tries to sharpen its focus on health results.</P>Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:09:44 -0400Kavita WatsaResponding to HIV/AIDS efficiently and effectively https://blogs.worldbank.org/health/responding-to-hivaids-efficiently-and-effectively
<p><a title="World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and Bill Gates at the International AIDS Conference, Washington DC by World Bank Photo Collection, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/7633422720/"><img width="500" height="333" alt="World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and Bill Gates at the International AIDS Conference, Washington DC" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8163/7633422720_f1fafb46a1.jpg"></a></p><p>The World Bank’s new President Jim Yong Kim caught the attention of many as the first head of this development institution to speak at the opening of a global conference on HIV/AIDS, where he called for applying the moral energy and practical lessons of the global AIDS movement to the global fight against poverty. Yesterday he returned to the 19<sup>th</sup> International AIDS Conference now underway in Washington D.C.’s massive Convention Center to join Bill Gates, US Global AIDS Coordinator Eric Goosby, and former Lesotho health minister Mphu Ramatlapeng on a panel that discussed how developing countries can achieve greater effectiveness and efficiency in the fight against HIV/AIDS. <br><br>Globally, there has been a lot more money invested in this fight over the past decade than ever before. As a direct result, thousands of lives have been saved and new infections averted, including among newborns whose mothers received treatment. But in today’s challenging financing environment, an increasingly effective and efficient HIV/AIDS response is needed to help countries to sustain their gains, prevent new infections, and continue to get treatment out to people already living with the virus.<br><br>President Kim said the Bank's main strengths are its broad involvement across many sectors—spanning health, education, social safety nets, and more—and its close engagement with national policymakers in developing countries, as well as with private sector investors. This breadth of operation positions the Bank to be, as the President said, “a very good partner” in improving health delivery systems that address not only diseases like HIV/AIDS, but also other urgent health needs such as good healthcare for mothers and children.<!--break--><br>In Africa, which carries the bulk of the global burden of HIV/AIDS, Rwanda is a noteworthy example of a country where there have been <a href="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/0,,contentMDK:23245750~pagePK:146736~piPK:146830~theSitePK:258644,00.html"><u><font color="#0000ff">spillover gains</font></u></a> from the response to HIV/AIDS to improving public health and addressing vulnerability as the country reaped broad benefits from its HIV/AIDS investments. President Kim said that it is time to make this sort of efficiency and effectiveness the case everywhere. “At the World Bank, we are going to work on systems science with great energy,” he said emphatically.<br><br>Bill Gates said the fact that 8 million people now receiving treatment is a “very positive story”. But he also stressed the need to make treatment less expensive, as well as to bring in more money to put new patients on treatment. Noting that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has made a further contribution to the Global Fund to Combat AIDS, TB and Malaria, bringing its total investment in the Fund to $1.4 billion, Gates also added that more tools are needed in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Even if a vaccine should be developed in the next ten years, it could still take 18 years to bring down the number of people on treatment, he said, offering a sobering perspective on the time lag in the fight against HIV/AIDS.<br><br>Country ownership emerged as another important aspect of the push for greater efficiency and effectiveness in tackling HIV/AIDS. President Kim mentioned Thailand as an example of a country with a relatively low-cost HIV/AIDS program that blended in well with its other development priorities. Mphu Ramatlapeng said that countries should indeed work towards greater ownership of HIV programs but it was also important to continue seeking donor assistance, as there were a great many competing priorities for funding in countries such as hers.<br><br>Ambassador Goosby spoke of the gains that would be achieved from aligning the work of PEPFAR, the Global Fund, the World Bank and others with the goals of each country. Both Ambassador Goosby and President Kim stressed the importance of accountability—to citizens in developing countries as well as to taxpayers in donor countries.<br><br>What would success look like in five years, asked moderator Michael Gerson of the Washington Post. One of the most moving answers from the panel was from Mphu Ramatlapeng, who referred to a recent New York Times column entitled “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/opinion/sunday/the-coffin-maker-benchmark.html?_r=1&amp;ref=nicholasdkristof"><u><font color="#0000ff">The Coffin-maker Benchmark</font></u></a>” by Nicholas Kristof. In this piece, Kristof writes about a coffinmaker in Lesotho who says that business is down because fewer people are dying of AIDS.&nbsp;</p><p><br><strong>More</strong></p><p><a href="http://www,worldbank.org/aids">World Bank and HIV/AIDS</a></p>Tue, 24 Jul 2012 14:20:47 -0400Kavita WatsaGoing to school in Om AlBadryhttps://blogs.worldbank.org/nasikiliza/going-to-school-in-om-albadry
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<P>Mid-morning in the little village of Om Albadry in Sudan’s North Kordofan state, and it is market day. But a curiously dull market, eerily silent but for the occasional sounds of livestock. In a few minutes, I realize why. All the village children are safely in school, and that accounts for the peace. In other Sudanese villages that we typically visited late in the afternoon, the first sounds of greeting were always whoops and cries from a horde of excited little boys, while the girls hung back, shy of strangers.</P>
<P>We carry on for half a mile past the market, passing large camel pens, in search of the school. We find a collection of small shacks that houses the older boys and girls, while preschoolers sit in a dusty group under a shade tree. The preschool teacher is seated on a plastic chair, and the children are repeating their lesson after her. It is a while before I notice the teacher is nursing a baby, even as she recites to her pupils. When the lesson ends, some of the girls begin to skip, using ropes that the teacher fishes out of her bag. The others play listlessly in the soft, warm sand, some lying down in it and falling asleep. None leave the shade of the tree, not even the little skippers.<!--break--></P>
<P>In a very basic shack nearby, a group of older boys and girls are receiving a math lesson from a young man. The energy level inside the class is considerable, and more so among the girls, who appear far less shy in a class setting than they do otherwise. They raise their hands, clicking their fingers impatiently for the teacher’s attention. Outside, a large goat joins in, adding his voice to the clamor. When the lesson is over, school is done as well, so that students can go to the market. They leave in an orderly line beautiful to behold.</P>
<P>The heat is considerable. I think back to my own schooling in India, and of trying to study in the heat of a Bengal summer when the electricity failed and the ceiling fans stopped. My pet hate, though, was not so much the power failures— we did have power most of the time—but our cramped school bus which was often packed with tired, perspiring girls jostling irritably for standing room. Yet these are positively luxurious and privileged memories when compared to reality in the village school in Om AlBadry, where there is little to separate the children from the blazing yellow desert.</P>
<P>It is remarkable to me that some teachers can teach and children learn even in such spartan conditions. The math teacher in Om AlBadry, who has no support but a rickety gray blackboard, manages to hold the attention of boys sitting half outside the shack for lack of space. He rightly believes his students will benefit from a better environment. And from what I see, the good news is he won’t have long to wait.</P>
<P><IMG border=2 hspace=2 alt="Students in Om Albadry, Sudan, take lessons in a makeshift shack, which will soon be replaced by a school building." vspace=2 align=right src="http://blogs.worldbank.org/nasikiliza/files/nasikiliza/sudan_kavita_education.jpg" width=350 height=233>A new school, with teachers’ accommodation and toilets, and large classrooms, is being built right by the shacks. It is almost impossible to imagine something so modern in a tiny village three hours from the El Obeid road, but there it is, nearly done, with a donkey cart carrying in what looks like the last of the construction materials. Many more children are expected here, now that the building exists and there will soon be space for everyone. I find myself wishing I could return to see this school open, and to hear another math lesson in Om Albadry.</P>
<P>Across Sudan, this is the story of education—a job begun, with much progress, but much more to do. Five million children are now in primary school, in towns and villages, even in camps for internally displaced people. Some in proper buildings, some in shacks, some bringing their own chairs to sit on. More must yet enroll, especially girls. And, very importantly, Sudan must ensure that all these children, having kept the faith with school, learn enough to prepare them for work and life.</P>Wed, 27 Jun 2012 10:29:31 -0400Kavita WatsaWomen of action in Sudanhttps://blogs.worldbank.org/nasikiliza/women-of-action-in-sudan
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<P>Working in development, there are some faces you never forget because they come back to you at the end of a long day, time and again.&nbsp;As we recognize&nbsp;International Day of Action for Women, I’ve been thinking about some of these faces from a recent trip to <A href="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/SUDANEXTN/0,,menuPK:375428~pagePK:141159~piPK:141110~theSitePK:375422,00.html">Sudan</A>. Faces of young women who are doing community work that is so important, it is really in a league of its own. I’d like to dedicate this “day” to these women of action, the young graduates of village midwife schools in eastern Sudan.</P>
<P>The doorway to the midwives school in Kassala, a town close to the Red Sea, leads you into a small courtyard crowded with beds, belongings, and cooking utensils gently baking under the desert sun. Passing through this open air dormitory, another door opens into a classroom, in which a group of about twenty young women dressed in soft white are listening to a lecture that involves plenty of gesticulating and a plastic model lying on a bed. These students have already qualified as midwives and are now in town to learn more advanced skills that they can take back to their villages in a few months.<!--break--></P>
<P>One of the young women, Nora, aged 23, has a million-dollar smile. She is eager to show off her work, and, later that afternoon, takes us back to her home village of Tagher. Driving through the desert with Nora and a few of my colleagues, I marvel at the flatness of the desert and the tire-tracks that mark the road. After many wrong turns we arrive and Nora leads us to the women’s tent, where after some negotiation, we are allowed to enter. The air is thick with the afternoon heat and strong odors from cattle tails hanging from the sticks that criss-cross overhead to form makeshift rafters. A girl sits in a corner, she is introduced as Hadiya. She cradles a healthy baby in her arms, a little girl named Fatmeh.</P>
<P>Nora sits by Hadiya’s side, beaming proprietarily at the young mother and the child she helped deliver, and telling us enthusiastically about how she handled the case.</P>
<P>I cannot quite see Ayesha, another midwife, because her face is covered behind her traditional veil. At 35, she is the mother of four children, and she comes forward to tell me about harmful practices in the villages that she has been working to prevent. “I tell people about the bad effects of female genital mutilation,” she says, listing for me the immense physical and psychological damage that can be done to girls who are offered money and a celebration to undergo this ritual. In her voice, muffled as it is behind layers of fabric, I hear pure steel. This is a quiet woman, determined to bring change to her world.</P>
<P><IMG border=2 hspace=2 alt="Tohaj, a 22-year-old Hadandya woman living in Sudan." vspace=2 align=right src="http://blogs.worldbank.org/nasikiliza/files/nasikiliza/sudan_tohaj_may2012.jpg" width=350 height=233>But perhaps the face that stays with me the most memorably is that of Tohaj, a 22-year-old from Tadaiyet village. In her short life, she has seen civil war, resettlement, mutilation, marriage, childbirth and divorce. Her face bears the deep marks of her people, the Hadandya, and her eyes are a hundred years old. But whatever the trauma of the past, she has an identity and a trade now, and a much-needed income. It is the first time she has ever earned anything and she feels hopeful about life.</P>
<P>It was a real privilege to meet these young women and learn about their lives and work. They are not just memorable faces; they represent the future of post-conflict countries in Africa.</P>Tue, 29 May 2012 17:47:57 -0400Kavita WatsaBridging the Malaria Gaphttps://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/bridging-the-malaria-gap
<p><img alt="" align="left" style="width: 238px; height: 335px" src="/files/meetings/rbzmalaria.jpg" />As prominent advocates for anti-malaria efforts in Africa cautioned at the United Nations yesterday, recent successes against malaria&mdash;however significant&mdash;are still fragile. Both the malaria parasite and the mosquitoes that carry it can develop resistance, to drugs as well as to insecticides, and therefore the fight against malaria must gain rather than lose momentum.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The British army surgeon who in 1897 helped discover that malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes predicted it would be eliminated in two years, but the parasite has remained a silent and stealthy killer,&rdquo; said World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick, noting that the preventable and curable disease continues to have a debilitating effect on many African economies.</p>
<p>Zoellick acknowledged the tremendous job that Ray Chambers, the UN Special Envoy for Malaria, had done to raise money for anti-malaria efforts, in conjunction with the African Leaders Malaria Alliance. Anti-malaria funding, which stood at just $175 million in 2005, is $1.6 billion today thanks to their efforts and many countries such as Rwanda and Zambia have made dramatic progress in recent years.</p>
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<p>&ldquo;Country ownership is absolutely essential in this struggle,&rdquo; he said, applauding African leaders on steps taken so far to combat the disease. These cooperative actions, so vital to make a regional effort against malaria successful, include eliminating taxes and tariffs on malaria commodities.</p>
<p>Zoellick also noted that the World Bank had recently played a significant role in helping to bridge the mosquito net gap in Africa, with an April 2010 announcement of $200 million for seven African countries.</p>
<p><strong>Beyond Mosquito Nets</strong></p>
<p>Prevention of malaria through insecticide-treated bed nets is only one aspect of the fight against malaria. Others include reaching the most vulnerable people, getting treatment to malaria patients on time, and ensuring that research stays ahead of issues such as resistance that can reverse the gains.</p>
<p>Both Bill Gates and Zoellick referred to systemic issues in African countries that prevent them from fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals in health. Often it is a question of too little money for health, or weak supply chains for the distribution of essential medicines. Stronger health systems are needed not only to combat malaria, but also to deliver the better health results that are vital to people's lives and to lasting development within their countries. This is especially true in tackling other communicable and non-communicable diseases.<br />
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&ldquo;Now it is more important than ever to make sure that the International Development Association (IDA) is replenished so we can together achieve the goal of finally consigning malaria to the history books,&rdquo; Zoellick concluded. IDA, the World Bank&rsquo;s fund for the poorest countries, is coming up for its 16th replenishment from donor countries in 2010. Since 2000, the World Bank's MDG efforts have saved 13 million lives.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:15:18 -0400Kavita WatsaGordon Brown hails education as the best anti-poverty programhttps://blogs.worldbank.org/education/gordon-brown-hails-education-as-the-best-anti-poverty-program
<p><img height="309" alt="World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and the Global Campaign for Education's youngest 1Goal ambassador Nthabiseng Tshabalala of South Africa." width="472" src="/files/education/gb2.jpeg" /></p>
<p><em>Blogging from the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit in New York City.</em></p>
<p>This morning, 69 million children would not have gone to school around the world. And of those who did, many did not learn what they should have. It is a good thing that education has such energetic champions as Queen Rania of Jordan and Gordon Brown, former UK Prime Minister, both of whom made strong statements today in New York in support of universal access to good-quality education.</p>
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<p>&ldquo;I have one goal&mdash;to advocate that every child receives a quality education,&rdquo; said Queen Rania, who is the co-founder and co-chair of <a href="http://www.join1goal.org/">1Goal</a> , a campaign that was founded with the objective of ensuring that education for all would be a lasting impact of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.</p>
<p>Gordon Brown spoke of education as the best anti-poverty and anti-deprivation program, speaking of successes he had seen recently in Africa. &ldquo;In Kenya, I saw first-hand the benefit for free education for all,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;There were 1 million children standing in queues waiting to be enrolled.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director at the World Bank noted that the International Development Association (IDA) had just pledged an additional $750 million for education over the next five years for countries off-track, especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.</p>
<p>&ldquo;These additional resources will be used to improve access to good quality schools, for girls&rsquo; scholarships, for conditional cash transfers, for grants to schools&mdash;these are proven interventions that are producing results,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;We know what works and so we are scaling up.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The current Secretary for International Development in the UK, Andrew Mitchell, emphasized that both &ldquo;output and outcomes&rdquo; were important in education, explaining that outputs are the number of schools built, and outcomes are the number of children receiving good quality education.</p>
<p>The message of the day on education was most neatly put by Nthabiseng Tshabalala, a 12-year-old from a Soweto school. She called on leaders gathered in New York to ensure that all 69 million out-of-school children also get their chance to be leaders some day.</p>Wed, 22 Sep 2010 11:18:21 -0400Kavita Watsa